Angkor Wat & the surrounding temples

Day 1
Our Tuk Tuk driver picked us up and we checked into our new plush accommodation (in comparison) at the Red Piano.

We had seen a few nice butterflies in Phnom Penh so decided to go to the Butterfly Garden for breakfast. There were hundreds of beautiful butterflies flying around, some had a wingspan of 6-7 inches. We then set off for the temples. Our first stop was Bayon, the entrance was amazing and at the temple there were loads of huge faces looking down on us from every angle. We visited the other temples that made up Angkor Thom and then set off back to Angkor Wat for sunset.

The approach to Angkor Wat was breathtaking and we took the iconic reflection shot by the pond. We explored the temple with the Bas Relief carvings and then climbed to the top. The steps were so steep as to be almost vertical. Helen opted to go down the only stairs with a handrail (joining a long queue) and Steve braved the normal steps. As we stood by the ponds to watch the sunset, some aussies approached us and asked if they could phtograph us possibly for posters for the Commonwealth Bank. All we did was stand there whilst they took photos and they paid us $50 each! We were very pleased as we seem to be going over our budget of 27.00 pounds each per day. The sounds coming from the forest got really loud, mostly from crickets but there are all sorts of things living in there. The Tuk Tuk journey home in the dark was quite scary as we didn't have any back lights so we held our torch up instead.

That night we tried Khmer food in the Dead Fish Restaurant which was very tasty. Helen had Kao-Pad-Ki-Mao (chicken with spicy fried rice, basil leaves, garlic & chilli) and Steve had Cha-Urk (Chicken with basil, garlic and lemongrass).

Day 2
We got up at 4.30am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. There was a bit too much cloud cover and it didn't really materialize. We then explored more temples eventually Ta Prohm (where two scenes from Tomb Raider were filmed). This temple really got swallowed up by the jungle with trees 100-150ft high growing out of the top of it in many places and in this temple the biggest trees have been left in situ. After visiting more temples we were flagging as we'd had hardly any sleep and went back at 2.30pm for a kip.

Day 3
After a bit more sleep we were refreshed and ready to go. Our first stop was the landmine museum set up by a Aki Ra who was forced to fight for the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian Army since he was 10 years old. He has since set up the musuem and uses all the donations to clear landmines and help local landmine children. For information you can visit the website at www.akiramineaction.com We then set off on the 27km Tuk Tuk ride to Banteay Srei. The carvings here are some of the best in the world and we met a local girl with a very cute puppy, earlier we met a nice local girl names Wat which made for a confusing conversation, she took away our drink cans for recycling..

We then had about four more temples to cover. Ta Som had a huge tree growing around the Eastern Gate. Preak Neak Pean is surrounded by water, we had it almost to ourselves and as dusk was looming the sounds of the frogs in the ponds croaking got louder and louder. As it was getting dark we reached Preah Khan, it was a large temple and walking around in near darkness got quite scary, the jungle creatures and birds were waking up. It was all very mystical and gave us a glimpse of how the temples may have been like in their heyday.

It was sad to come to the end of our trip to the temples of Angkor Wat, it is a magical place-especially at quiet times.